Selling to New vs Existing Customers was explored in the 6th and final session of the Brighteye Edtech Startup Festival 2024. We were pleased to be joined by two experienced experts in the world of Customer Success, expanding on key differences, challenges, and best practices for both selling to new customers and maximising the potential of your existing ones.
Speakers:
Andrea Spillman-Gajek Success Accelerators (Brighteye Mentor)
Ejieme Eromosele GM of EMEA @ Quiq, Top 100 CX Strategist
Rhys Spence Head of Research @ Brighteye
We hope you'll enjoy the key takeaways and a full write-up of the session below, and the recording can be watched here:
Key Takeaways:
Customer Success drives growth: It's more than just support — it helps secure recurring revenue, increases Net Revenue Retention (NRR), and turns customers into advocates
Early-stage CS is founder-led: Founders should handle Customer Success early on because they know the product best. This sets the tone for a customer-centric culture and builds strong relationships
Focus on key lifecycle points: Drive time to value early with proper onboarding, maintain regular engagement, and proactively manage renewals and upsells
Structure for scalability: As you grow, tier accounts based on value, differentiate CS roles, and create repeatable processes that are scalable and efficient
Prioritise the customer experience: Every customer interaction matters. Continuously provide value and listen to feedback to build loyalty and create advocates
The full write-up:
In the fast-paced world of startups, customer success is no longer just a "nice-to-have" — it's a game changer. Imagine turning your customers into loyal advocates who not only stick around but also help drive your growth. In the early days of a company, founders often focus on acquiring new customers, but the real secret to sustainable success lies in keeping those customers happy and engaged. So, how can customer success strategies fuel your business? Let’s dive into why it's one of the most powerful tools for scaling your company.
In today’s session, Rhys Spence, our Head of Research, welcomed Andrea Spillman-Gajek and Ejieme Eromosele, two veterans in the world of customer success, to tell us more about the topic. Here are some of our main takeaways from this discussion.
About Andrea
Andrea Spillmann-Gajek is the founder and CEO of Success Accelerators and is a seasoned expert in the startup world, with a passion for helping companies grow from the ground up. With a proven track record of scaling businesses from pre-seed to Series C, she’s held key customer success roles across various organisations. Andrea is all about taking customer success to the next level, moving beyond just putting out fires and focusing on building long-term relationships that drive revenue. Now based in Zurich, she continues to share her insights as an advisor to Brighteye, helping startups understand the importance of being proactive with customer success right from the start.
About Ejieme
Ejieme Eromosele has built an impressive and varied career in customer success. She started out in management consulting at Accenture, but her real passion for customer success shone through as she moved into customer experience roles at the New York Times. There, she played a key part in the company’s big shift toward digital, helping to reshape how they engaged with their audience. From there, she became the first-ever customer success leader at Snaps, where she led the charge in transforming the company from an agency model to a SaaS powerhouse. Now, as General Manager for EMEA at Quip, Ejieme brings all that experience to the table, helping businesses across industries grow and evolve with a customer-first mindset.
Why Worry about Customer Success?
Andrea and Ejieme both emphasised that customer success is much more than just handling customer issues — it's a core driver of business growth, especially for startups. Andrea highlighted how customer success can directly impact revenue. She explained that by focusing on existing customers, nurturing relationships, and being proactive, startups can increase Net Revenue Retention (NRR), which, in turn, drives sales. According to Andrea, if companies can maintain strong relationships with their customers, they’re likely to see significant revenue growth over time. In her view, customer success is about more than reacting to problems — it's about anticipating customer needs and ensuring they get value from the product from day one.
Ejieme echoed these points, adding that customer success plays a critical role in driving recurring revenue. She stressed that it’s not just about keeping customers happy in a transactional way (like customer service), but rather about creating a strategy that ensures customers keep coming back and even buy more. Happy customers often become the best advocates for a business, selling the product better than any sales team could. Ejieme pointed out that over time, the biggest source of revenue comes from existing customers who renew their contracts and expand their usage of the product, which makes taking care of them a top priority.
Both Andrea and Ejieme agree that startups should prioritise customer success early on because it can be a game changer for long-term growth. By investing in strong customer relationships, startups can secure a reliable revenue stream, build trust, and turn their customers into powerful advocates.
Early Founder CS
The speakers highlighted how, early on, founders often take on the role of CS lead, which makes sense because they understand the product and vision best. This close interaction with customers allows founders to gather feedback, build trust, and shape the product to meet customer needs. Founders are well-positioned to turn feedback into product improvements, keeping things iterative, especially when resources are tight. This approach also sets a customer-centric tone for the entire company. However, as the customer base grows and relationships become more complex, founders will need to hire a dedicated CS team. Specialists can focus on expanding accounts, renewing contracts, and proactively managing customer relationships, ensuring long-term success as the business scales.
Key Points in the Client Lifecycle
Andrea emphasised several critical points in the customer lifecycle that are key to ensuring success and long-term growth. Early in the process, it's important to drive time to value — clients that don’t see value quickly won’t renew. Activation and onboarding need attention, as clients rarely onboard successfully on their own. Regular engagement through touchpoints — whether monthly, quarterly, or annually — helps track value attainment and maintain a strong relationship. Moving beyond reactive troubleshooting to proactive, value-centred engagement is key. As the relationship grows, the focus should shift to renewals, upsells, and cross-sells, ensuring these opportunities are pursued well before the renewal cycle. This proactive approach keeps clients engaged, maximises retention, and opens the door to future growth.
Structuring for Repeatability
Once these points have been implemented, Andrea and Ejieme insisted on the importance of ensuring repeatability. Establishing repeatability in Customer Success is essential as your startup scales. Early on, tier accounts based on their value and potential — some smaller accounts may require more attention than larger ones, so allocate resources accordingly. As your team grows, differentiate roles to manage tasks more effectively. Onboarding can eventually be separated from ongoing customer management, and support can be split off even earlier. When building your team, prioritise making your first hire someone who can handle multiple responsibilities and adapt quickly. Finally, structure for repeatability by ensuring that processes are clear, scalable, and efficient, but don't rush to mimic larger companies — lean into your current stage and grow steadily.
Building the Customer Experience
Ejieme highlighted the importance of customer experience as a holistic approach to customer success. She explained that customer experience encompasses every interaction a customer has with a company, from initial onboarding to ongoing support. Unlike customer service, which is reactive, customer success (and by extension, customer experience) is strategic and proactive. She stressed that recurring value leads to recurring revenue, meaning businesses should focus on continuously providing value to their customers to keep them engaged. Happy customers are more likely to renew and expand their use of the product, turning into advocates who help drive growth.
Incorporating customer feedback is another critical part of the customer experience. Ejieme emphasised that listening to customer input, acting on it, and communicating changes back to the customers builds trust and strengthens relationships. This engagement creates a positive loop where customers feel valued, leading to increased loyalty and long-term success.
And with that, we have come to an end of the session on customer success, and to the Brighteye Edtech Startup Festival! A very big thanks to Andrea and Ejieme, along with all our other panellists throughout the festival. We hope you enjoyed reading about these sessions as much as we enjoyed hosting them, and we hope to see you again next year.
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